Golden Age – a Gamechanger
When I went to NYC in January 2020 (yes, I know, right before the pandemic), I was told I had to see the revival of Oklahoma!. I was skeptical – it was a Golden Age musical, so it was old-fashioned by today’s standards, and it had never been one of my favorite ones. But I was told, “Oh, this is different. This isn’t your mother’s Oklahoma!”
And it wasn’t. As I wrote in my November 2019 blogpost, Golden Age Musicals – Why You Should Bother, it was a very different interpretation. Besides being accompanied by a bluegrass band, it had diverse casting (which, most assuredly, would be called “DEI” by the current administration – don’t get me started), and it was dark. It was the best version of Oklahoma! I had ever seen (although I did not care for the Laurey – she was not a legit soprano, and she could not sing the songs written for her character).
Another plus was that they served cornbread and chili during intermission that was made on stage during Act 1.
ALL SHOWS SHOULD DO THIS.
And I think it was very true to the mission that Oscar Hammerstein II set when he started writing Oklahoma with Richard Rodgers (their first collaboration). To shake things up – to fully integrate the story, the songs, the dancing – instead of having the songs being merely a toe-tapping diversion. Instead, the songs moved the action along, they were a continuation of the dialogue, and they developed the characters fully. Hammerstein had started this work with Jerome Kern in Showboat, but it was fully realized in Oklahoma! and in their other musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.
I believe that, while executed in a completely different way, that this was just as dramatic a shift as Wagner’s idea of music drama in his 1851 book Opera and Drama and the 1869 premiere of his Ring Cycle – the intention was to achieve cohesion and synthesis, rather than jumping from one disjointed scene to another. Both Hammerstein and Wagner wanted to create an art form that was realistic and connected.
(Interestingly, I just found someone’s thesis discussing Sondheim’s concept musical as an example of gesamtkunstwerk – which I may delve into when we get into the concept musical – but it’s interesting, since Sondheim was Hammerstein’s protégé.)
Other Characteristics of the Golden Age
In addition to shows being fully integrated, the Golden Age era is noted for:
- Having American themes – shows often set in the “flyover states” (i.e., not New York or Hollywood)
- Stories coming from known literary works (in other words, having plots)
- Pygmalion (Shaw) –> My Fair Lady
- Tales of the South Pacific (Michener) –> South Pacific
- Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) –> West Side Story
- Making stars out of choreographers – Abbott, DeMille, Robbins, Fosse
- Despite being dismissed as sentimental, they were actually groundbreaking on subjects such as
- miscegenation (South Pacific)
- first person to die onstage (Oklahoma)
- first hero to die onstage (King & I)
- spousal abuse (Carousel)
- bigotry (Finian’s Rainbow)
- gang violence (West Side Story)
- First original cast recording (Oklahoma)
- First Tony Awards (1947)
Vocal Styles
The vocal styles of this period are characterized by:
- Legit sopranos/baritones (lead roles); taller mouth shapes, more vertical resonance
- Belt-y altos/tenors (character roles)
- Speech-like no matter what voice type
- Consistent vibrato
- Phrasing: clean but not fixed, and not soupy and syrupy
Here’s the playlist I created for my presentation at Maryland Thespians a few weeks back. This also includes an excellent comparison of how contemporary singers interpret Golden Age revivals, courtesy of Kevin Michael Jones. (Note: I prefer Julie Andrews’ Cinderella to Laura Osnes’ by a country mile.)
Singers of the era include: John Raitt, Barbara Cook, Celeste Holm, Alfred Drake. Check out this recording of John Raitt singing “Soliloquy” and interpolating a high Bb4 at the end (much to the disapproval of Richard Rodgers, who wanted it to stay on the F4 written and not be quite so performative).
What’s Next?
The Golden Age is said to have ended in 1959, with the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein (Sound of Music), although there are several other musicals written in the early 1960s that would qualify: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (the final produced musical by Frank Loesser), and Camelot (1960, the final collaboration of Lerner & Loewe). But for all intents and purposes, the style was established between the years of 1943 and 1959.
In my next post, we’ll move on to the 1960s, which in many ways carried on the traditions of the Golden Age, but became a bridge to the musicals of the 1970s and beyond.
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If you would like to work on music of this era with me privately or have me come in and work with your theater students, drop me a note and I’d be happy to discuss the possibilities!